Using Vim with Django

Tips

Vim Modeline

To ensure that all developers are using a standard tab format (as long as they are using Vim), you can add a Vim modeline (special comment) to your files, to set people in the same mode for that file. Example:

Omnicomplete

Plugins

snippetsEmu

Development takes place on ​Google Code, where the subversion repository includes predefined snippets for django/python/etc.

​SnippetsEmu allows one to define abbreviations which can be expanded into larger blocks of text. The abbreviations can also contain place markers which can be 'jumped to' in a similar manner to the macros defined in TextMate on OS X.

One can add specific abbreviations for models or templates based on file contents. Adding the following line to your ~/.vim/after/ftplugin/python.vim file (create it if you don't have it) will allow you to define abbreviations just for models (use the file \Program Files\vim\vimfiles\after\ftplugin\python.vim under Windows):

The following is an example collection of Django specific abbreviations for use with the plugin. More examples can be found in the ​subversion repository. Please email the author with any of your own additions (f dot ingram dot lists at gmail dot com):

Such a structure can also be created by using the built-in '\C' command which will recurse through the whole directory tree.

Tag List

The ​taglist plugin is probably similar to Project but can also look inside Python files to display classes and functions. (It requires the ctags program installed on your system, which probably comes with most Linuxes and is easily installed via MacPorts (or fink as "exuberant-ctags") on OS X.)

Pyflakes

The ​pyflakes plugin highlights common Python errors like misspelling a variable name on the fly. It also warns about unused imports, redefined functions, etc.

This plugin is fast enough that it registers itself with vim hooks for leaving insert mode and saving a buffer, so that the warnings are always up to date.

Vim/IDE

PIDA

Although this is not Django-specific (I don't think some of the other stuff in here is very Django-specific either), ​PIDA looks like a pretty nice IDE environment for VIM+Python, which would therefore help you out in Django :).

Mappings

I have this in my vimrc to make file jumps between relative django files easier.

Pony.vim

Pony.vim is a plugin for working with Django projects. Visit the ​repository on GitHub for more information.

Eclipse

A combination of Eclipse + Aptana studio plugin (Django code completion, auto-import and much more) + vrapper plugin (vim emulation) or viplugin if you prefer, is a decent solution if you want a full-blown IDE with code completion and quick access to django specific commands such as syncdb, starting an interactive django shell, etc. Alternatively you could try Aptana studio standalone, with a vim plugin, however I experienced issues with vrapper in Aptana standalone, that I didn't have with the Aptana plugin.

Suggestions

Django Project Manager: By panosl

The idea is to create a plugin, that will wrap the functionality of django-admin/manage.py along with project.vim.

This will one to create a new django project from within vim, and generating a Project file with all the files pre-specified. This could be extended to allow, the creation of apps within the project, leveraging the usage of manage.py.

So a regular session would be:

:djsp [projectname]
# This will in turn generate the required Project file with all the files of the project.

:djsa [appname]
# This will create a new app, and update the Project file with the new data regarding the application.

At this point, this is enough, even though we could still wrap a bit more of django-admin/manage, by allowing inner commands to launch/stop the test server and similar additions.

In my opinion this would help with django development and help focus more on the development that usually happens within the editor, which in our case, is ofcourse (G)Vim.

Comments

These are some notes for anyone considering writing this plugin.

Vim has the 'read' command which can read the output from a command into a buffer using the pling operator. E.g. :read !dir will read a directory listing into the current buffer.

Vim has special buffers for storing different types of output. See :help special-buffers and :help cwindow

The Project plugin has the function CreateEntriesFromDir() which can be used to create new entries. Passing '1' as the arguement will create a recursive entry which would be most appropriate for creating Django entries.

The Project plugin allows users to use a different project file from the default. It could be that the new plugin generates a project specific file when a new django project is created.

The following code can used to create Project entries in a buffer. Note that various settings will be altered by the call to DoSetup so it's probably best to use a new buffer.